5 Studio Tips I Wish I’d Known When I Started Oil Painting

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Time is money, and if I’d known about these tips when I started, I could have saved a lot of both!

1. Avoid Wasting Leftover Paint

I’ve previously advocated for painting like a millionaire – i.e. putting plenty of paint on your palette. However, sometimes this inevitably means you have quite a bit of paint left over after a painting, and if you’re not painting every day, those leftover piles of paint will soon dry and you’ll have to throw them out.

To prevent this waste, you can keep leftover paint workable for a week or more by putting it in an airtight container with a small amount of clove bud oil. Clove oil is rich in eugenol, which is a powerful antioxidant. This fills the airtight container, preventing the paint from hardening, so it stays fresh for much longer than usual. To use this method:

• Using a palette knife, place your leftover piles of paint on a sheet of non-absorbent paper, such as glassine or baking/greaseproof paper.
• Place the sheet in an airtight container.
• Soak one end of a cotton bud (Q-tip) in clove bud oil, and place it in the container, making sure it doesn’t touch any of the paint (the fumes do all the work).
• Place the lid on the container, making sure it’s airtight.

A word of caution: Never mix clove oil with your paint directly, as it may prevent the paint from drying indefinitely, or at least weaken the final paint film, causing potential issues in future.

2. Don’t Wash your Varnish Brush

Varnishing is an essential step in any oil painting, to give the painting a consistent sheen, as well as protecting the painting surface from damage. But washing your varnish brush can be tedious and messy, requiring solvents (mineral spirit or white spirit) to break down the remaining varnish, followed by soap and water to fully clean the brush.

However, if you varnish with Gamvar* (or any varnish that contains solvent), you can actually skip the washing process entirely.

After varnishing, just leave the brush to go hard as the left over varnish dries. Then when you need to varnish your next painting, pop the brush into your jar of Gamvar and the solvent in it will dissolve the old dried varnish. After a couple of minutes, the brush will be soft again and ready to use. You’ll never need to wash that varnish brush again. Just think of the time you’ll save!

3. Don’t Wash your Paintbrushes!

Ok, hear me out on this one. Instead of washing your brushes with soap and water after every painting session, you can just wipe off as much paint as possible using a paper towel (you can also rinse the brush in mineral spirits if you use it, to get more paint out), then dip the brush in safflower oil*, and wipe off the excess oil.

Safflower oil is very slow drying, so a brush soaked in it will not dry up for a week or more. When you come to paint again, you’ll want to wipe of the excess oil and ideally rinse again in mineral spirits, because if the safflower oil gets into your paint, it will slow down the drying time.

Note: The oil will dry eventually, so if you’re going more than a week without painting, you can repeat the process with fresh oil. If you’re having a longer break, it’s probably best to give the brushes a thorough wash so you can store them safely without them going hard.

If you forget about them, and they do end up going hard, don’t panic…

4. Restore Dried Brushes with Acetone

You don’t want to make a habit of this, as it’s not great for your brushes (not to mention it stinks!) but even if your brush is caked solid in dried oil paint, it can be rescued with a bit of acetone (the same stuff that’s in nail polish remover).

To restore a dried brush:

• Dip the bristles of the brush in a jar of pure acetone (ideally do this outside, or make sure the room is well ventilated) and swirl it around, but be careful to avoid getting acetone in the ferrule (the metal part of the brush) as it can melt the glue that holds the brush together.
• Remove the brush and gently scrape off the dried paint with a palette knife.
• Repeat as needed until all the paint is removed and the brush bristles are flexible again.
• Rinse in mineral spirits to remove remaining acetone, then either clean the brush with soap and water or use the safflower oil method described above if you plan to use the brush again soon.

Doing this too often will damage your brushes, and they will lose their shape and probably some bristles, but the silver lining is this can actually be very useful if you need an old “messy” brush to create some texture in your paintings.

5. Uh… About Number Five

Yeah, I lied. I only have 4 tips. But I’m hoping you can help me out. If you have any similar time/money saving tips (or thoughts about the ones I shared above) please leave a comment.

If you’d like to see the paintings these tips helped me make, browse my original British wildlife art for sale.